Vorhees Associates LLC has recommended the salary be listed at $150,000 with an option for it to be adjusted upward or downward based on experience, after conducting salary studies of city managers in other Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and mid-Ohio cities. Commissioners unanimously approved advertising the salary at a special meeting Tuesday morning.

Jerome Post, the city's human resource director, said the recommendation from Voorhees Associates LLC Vice President Karl Nollenberger is about the same price city staff recommends based on studies city staff conducted in 2012 of Michigan cities similar to Kalamazoo. Post said that recommendation is "based on information
we have from the other communities and the level of work that is performed here
in the city of Kalamazoo."

Commissioner David Anderson said Tuesday morning Nollenberger provided him with the salary study in a one-on-one meeting and made a recommendation to offer the salary at $150,000.

"I was entirely comfortable accepting his recommendation at
the time," Anderson said.

Retiring city manager Kenneth Collard makes $138,717 and his compensation package totals $167,072. Collard is expected to retire by January 2014.

Commissioners did not advertise a salary when they conducted the original city manager search with Bob Murray & Associates. City commissioners then fired Bob Murray & Associates and reopened the search, then hired Voorhees to conduct the new search.

Nollenberger wrote to commissioners that advertising a salary attracts candidates and provides commissioners discretion when negotiating with a candidate, but sets an expectation level for both parties. Nollenberger's salary information for 33 cities showed that in Michigan, the city manager of Wyoming, a city of about 74,000, makes about $132,000. Compared to that, a first-year city manager with 10 years of experience in Waukesha, Wis., a population of about 70,000, makes $112,000. In Bloomington, Ill., a city of about 76,000, the city manager of four years with a 32-year background in management makes a $167,000 salary.